What was the Green Revolution?

The period 1967 to 1978 is known as Green Revolution, during which India became self-sufficient provider of wheat and rice.

During partition, India lost western Punjab to Pakistan, thus losing a major agricultural resource. A couple of bad monsoon seasons followed. In 1955, India faced a food crisis reminiscent of Bengal famine of 1943.

United States came to rescue. In 1956, India signed a deal, called PL 480, it allowed India to buy 3.1 million tones of wheat per year for three years. Major weakness was exposed, India could become extinct through starvation. Indian scientists were sent to American agricultural Universities (Cornell Kansas) for training. India set up agricultural universities in all major states.

India needed a revolution.

The period 1967 to 1978 is known as Green Revolution. India promoted increased farming land, developed and used grains hardened against pests, promoted double crop year and better irrigation techniques. Finally, India is not only self sufficient, it has become an exporter for many of the grains, especially Rice.

There is a more important and interesting background story. In India, wheat was available for 5,000 years. After war, the US forces started to re-build Japan. S. Cecil Salmon (US Agriculture Research Service) was assigned to analyze the existing agricultural products and make recommendations. Salmon came upon a dwarf variety of wheat, known as Norin. The dwarf plants had a lot of grain with little foliage. He sent the seeds to Washington State University. It took 13 years for a research team to  develop Gaines dwarf in 1959. Norman Borlaug took Gaines dwarf to 'International Maize and Research Center' and started to cross breed with the best varieties of wheat available in Mexico.

In 1963 Borlaug visited India on invitation to study wheat breeding facilities for advise. In 1966, India imported 18.000 tons of two new strains of dwarf wheat: Lerma Rojo 64A, and Sonora 64.

In 1968, wheat production far exceeded the demand, strained the existing infra-structure for transportation distribution and storage. The green revolution had started.

Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honor was conferred upon Dr. Norman E. Borlaug on January 25, 2006 (eve of the Indian Republic Day) in the field of Science and Engineering for his role in India's Green Revolution. In 2006, for the eight consecutive year, the Bharat Ratna the highest award was not conferred. In 1970 Dr Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the 'Green Revolution', Norman Borlaug, is recognized as the 'father of India's Green Revolution',

The revolution did not stop at importing seeds. Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) at Pusa continued work to develop High Yielding Varieties (HYV). New seeds developed included: Pusa Sonara, Malavika, Kalyan Sonara.